hey everyone
few months ago i posted a topic asking if i should get the 35mm lens or flash.well ended up by getting both sb600 and 50mm f/1.8D

anyways,i`m using my flash at parties and yesterday i had a birthday party the photos are good but there`s an issue i`m not able to handle.

the flash makes the picture focuses on the subject and everything else is black so it ruins the location

also , flash killes the lights and stuff, i mean yesterday i was shooting and the lights were low and some color lightings so when i shot with the flash it looks just white as if there`s no lighting in the hall
i tried to switch off the flash and turn the ISO to 1600 or Hi "on my D60 " but the image looked awful.
bouncing the flash from sides and back results good images but those two issues i dunno how to solve them

so hope you share your knowledge with using flash

here`s the main settings i was shooting with
f 5 or 6
shutter speed : 1/60 or 1/125
iso 400

The best way I can explain it is this: shutter speed controls ambient light, flash controls some ambient + flash exposure. If you're shooting and the background is too dark it means that your shutter speed is too fast + your aperture might need to be opened up. When doing on location work like this try metering the light for the environment first to see what settings you need to get the exposure you're looking for, then add the flash into the equation and make adjustments as necessary. I hope this helps.

thnx for this post idavis , i`m gonna do this so plz tell me if this is what you ment.
i`m gonna put my cam on P and see what`s the shutter speed without using the flash(let`s say 1/4) , then add my flash program it at 1/4 and make the shutter speed of the camera something around 1/60 or 1/125 .
is it right ?

somewhat. remember that you only need to adjust your aperture to control the flash exposure. you may want to first set your camera in program mode to get the shutter speed, then switch to manual mode so that you can make the minor shutter/aperture adjustments manually.

Or just use the camera in A mode with a -1EV exposure compensation. This way the camera will automatically track ambient light level leaving your flash exposure unchanged. Of course the -1EV part is totally optional; you can have more, less or none if you want, depending on how much emphasis you want to put in your subject.

With flash:
Aperture controls all (flash light and ambient light)
Shutter speed controls ambient light (within the limits of the sync speed specific to the camera)
Flash power controls flash light.
Best use of flash is with camera in manual mode
Get a reading with flash off.
Set aperture so you have appropriate DOF.
Set shutter speed for correct exposure
Turn on flash and take the shot.
Problems with colors:
Flash color matches approximately daylight color.
If you are indoors with tungsten light and WB is set to flash, subject will be the correct color but ambient light will be off.
The solution is to use a filter on the flash (gel) that corrects the flash light to tungsten and set camera WB to tungsten.
If you have fluorescent light then you’re in a mess. You can put a fluorescent filter on the flash and set WB to that too, but shutter speed has to be 1/60 or 1/50 depending on the power network frequency. Fluorescent light changes color with the AC frequency and you have to capture a full cycle (1/50 or 1/60 of a second) to have consistent colors with every shot.
HTH

Keep in mind that flash to subject distance also affects the amount of light hitting your subject. Every time you double the flash-subject distance, you lose 75% (2 stops) of light, so you either have to crank-up flash power, or open up your aperture by the same amount to correctly expose your subject

Google and research "Inverse Square law" it is a bit complicated but will explain flash to subject distance to you.

Other then that, I think everything has been said. If you really want to learn flash check out Zack Arias's One light DVD's. They aren't cheap but will teach you everything you need to learn about flash photography especially on a budget.

Flash power is easy. Flash power is going to depend on your environment, lenses and ISO. But Keep in mind the lower you can put your flash setting, the longer your batteries will last.

For example,

Lets say your photographing a portrait in an outdoor setting. Rule of thumb is that you would put your subject in some shade like under a tree or something. All you really need to do is get some light up into the face and body. You could go with say 100ISO because it will be your cleanest file. You want to include the background so find your sync speed and bring your shutter down until you have exposed the background like you would like it. You can go with a lower flash setting say 1/8th power and then adjust your aperture accordingly to expose the subject. This will not only work well but save a ton of battery life. If you have a good fast lens like a F2.8 or lower you could go with a 1/16 or 1/32 power depending on the situation. Lower is better.

Say you are trying to light a group of people at sundown. It's getting dark quick and you know your ISO at 800 or 1600 will start to get really noisy. To achieve the right exposure and quality you now have to bump up your flash power to get the proper exposure onto your subjects. This may be as much as a 1/4 1/2 or even a 1/1 flash power. Don't be afraid to adjust your ISO either to a 200 or 400 if it helps get the right exposure your looking for.

Another example of using a high flash power is if you were saying to light a large area such as a subject in a tunnel and you wanted the tunnel to be part of the photo. For applications like this your standard hot shoe mounted flash may not be enough so you would have to get into a more powerful flash such as an Alien Bee or a nice Elinchrom rig which can get a little expensive.

well i got some situations for example and i`ll write down what i`d do and you guys tell me if it`s right or wrong .

let`s say i`m indoor in a restaurent or something , so there`s no enough light and i want to shoot some people and i want to include what`s in the restaurant and i`m setting close to the subject and using my 50mm lens f/1.8 ,here`s what i would do
set the shutter speed 1/45 or 1/60 , f/1.8 , iso 400 , WB flash or maybe Kelvin around 5000 , flash powered 1/16

and let`s say i`m outside at night and there`s lots of lambs and stuff but still low light and i want to shoot some people and i`m around 5 meters far from the subject and want to show the area and everything around , i quess i should do this
shutter speed 1/45 , f/16 , iso 600 or 800 , wb flash , flash power 1/4 or 1/8 .

Both of these situations may be different depending on your light readings. For the restaurant, using a 50mm F1.8 you probably wouldn't even need flash. When shooting a subject in that situation id just dial down to say a 2.8 or lower and blur the background.

As for a night shoot you would have to shoot with a tripod if you wanted to include something like the stars in the background and stuff and a rear curtin sync on your camera with your flash so that the flash fires at the last second before your shutter closes.

All of this takes a lot of practice and patience to figure out the proper exposure in the right situation.

And yes when working with flash you should adjust your WB accordingly.

Let's organize this a bit more.
When you are using flash you are adding one more variable into the equation.
Without it, exposure is governed by aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
With flash, exposure is governed by aperture, shutter speed, ISO AND flash light intensity.
Flash light intensity received by the sensor is not influenced by the shutter speed.
Flash fires for about 1/10000 of a second and the sensor get's it all with any shutter speed.
So shutter speed will only influence the ambient light.
Aperture , by restricting the ALL the light that reaches the sensor, influences both ambient light and flash light intensity.
Likewise ISO.
Flash light intensity alone may be adjusted by flash power and/or flash distance to the subject.
All the above give you the flexibility to differentiate your exposure for flash light and ambient light (or subject and background) as you need.
First you have to know exposure for ambient light. That's simple, with the flash off, take a measurement of your scene, then adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO for correct exposure and the type of scene that you have, moving , static , portrait group and so on. Basically, you meter and set exposure for the background.
Second, set the flash. You have 2 options:
A. Automatic (TTL) . In this mode, flash exposure is set by a preflash fired with the shutter closed, light is measured in the CENTER of the frame and then the camera takes the picture with the manual settings you have chosen, and the exact amount of flash power for correct exposure in the CENTER of the frame, according to the aperture you have chosen in the previous step, and distance to the subject (the CENTER of the frame)
I have lied to you in the previous paragraph; you can't exactly choose ANY shutter speed. There is a limit. It's called sync speed, and it's specific to the camera. It may be from B(bulb) to 1/200, 1/250 or even 1/500. It's in the camera manual. I didn't quite lie though, because you can put the flash in high speed mode and then you really may choose any shutter speed, but, the maximum power of the flash is much lower, and , if you do that in rapid succession many times, you may toast the flash.
B. Manual. In this mode you chose the flash power you want. With the digital camera you have the luxury to see exactly what you're doing, so a little trial and error will take you quickly to the results you seek.

Now, what results do you seek?
If you are in broad daylight, around noon on a sunny day, you can't overpower sunlight with the flash, even with shutter speed at its shortest (sync speed) and aperture closed. So your main light will be the sunlight and the flash will be used to fill in deep shadows on your subject. This is the best use of TTL; it does a great job in this situation.
The back light situation; in this one, expose correctly for the background and use flash to illuminate the subject. At this, in my opinion, TTL doesn't do such a great job, your subject will be illuminated but , always too much, and will look like a glowing Martian on a vacation.
Best, in this case, use manual flash to have a more balanced result.
Dawn or dusk change the situation and, selecting shorter shutter speeds, you can diminish ambient light until you shut it down completely. This gives you maximum flexibility because you can choose which one is your main light, flash or sun, and the balance between them.
At night, your main light will be the flash and ambient light, if you expose enough, will be dim.
Indoors works pretty much on the same principle, but a new problem arises, the light source type. If it is daylight through windows, it's OK. If it's incandescent (tungsten) or fluorescent, then there is a color conflict between those, and the flash light that has a color close to daylight. If the problem is not addressed, your subject may have the correct color but the background will be an orange yellow or an undead green. No Photoshop will correct this one automatically, one has to work hard to do it so you're better off spending $20 or so and getting flash filters (gels) that will color its light like tungsten or fluorescent light, and setting the WB accordingly, you have no color problems.
I really hope this one is clearer than the previous post.